


Two Steps Forward

by trashweasel



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Christmas, F/M, Gift Fic, Secret Santa, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-10
Updated: 2018-01-10
Packaged: 2019-03-03 00:51:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13330008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trashweasel/pseuds/trashweasel
Summary: Jack Savage promised to make it to Skye's for Christmas, but he has one last mission to complete before he's home free.





	Two Steps Forward

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Anon_11487](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Anon_11487).



> A Secret Santa gift for Anon_11487 for the /ztg/ gift swap. Sorry it's so late! Merry Christmas!

Six minutes. Jack Savage had six minutes to get out of there, or he was dead meat. His fingers flew across the keyboard of the server room’s lone computer terminal. Each breath was an icy cloud of condensation, but he refused to let himself get distracted by the cold. Between the harsh glare of the monitor and the pale blue LEDs lining the server racks, there wasn’t much light to work by. He couldn’t risk too much more than that, though.

After all, he wasn’t supposed to be here.

“C’mon, c’mon…,” he muttered to himself. The progress bar on the screen was stuck somewhere around three-fourths full. He checked his watch again. 

Four minutes.

A cheery “Complete!” message popped up on the screen. Jack had to restrain himself from sighing auidibly. He unclipped a tiny, overengineered flashlight from his belt and slipped down a row of servers, silently counting them off as he passed.

There it was. A red light near the top blinked once, twice, then turned a steady green.

Bingo.

Now, all that was left to do was slip out of here before anyone--

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t Mr. Jack Savage.”

The overhead fluorescent lights flickered and hummed to life, leaving Jack suddenly as good as blind. Through his cracked fingers, he could just barely make out the figure standing in the doorway. 

The timer on his watch beeped.

So much for that.

Almost an hour later, Jack stood at the end of the chilly apartment hallway, his face still stinging from the winter wind. He shook the snow from his feet one at a time, turned the knob, and thrust his frost-covered shoulder into the door. It didn’t budge. 

Locked, of course. 

Locked because it was late. Because _he_ was late. He fished his keys from his pocket and tried the door again. It opened, but just wide enough to peek through. 

The chain. Right.

He couldn’t see much from where he stood. An unlikely cocktail of Christmas music and the stench of motor oil wafted through the crack. That, and the sound of metal on metal. 

“Skye? Hey, it’s me. Open up.”

The metallic noises stopped, but not the music. Footsteps. Then, a bright blue fox eye appeared in the sliver of the doorway.

“You said 7:30.”

Jack scuffed a foot against the welcome mat and shoved his hands in his pocket. 

“Yeah, I got held up at work.”

“You got busted because you weren’t supposed to be in today.”

“Yeah.”

“Which ruined your ‘foolproof plan’ and made you miss the 7:10 train.”

“I know, I know.” He already stood a head shorter than the vixen. Looking up at her now, he felt about a foot tall.

“And now dinner’s cold.”

“That seems like an accurate summary. Now, can I come in?”

“Your request will be taken into consideration. Now, what’s the password?” 

Jack sighed and rubbed his brow. She wasn’t mad, not really. Even with most of her face obscured by the door, he had caught the playful glint in her eyes. Still, she wouldn’t let him in until she felt he had been properly teased over this.

“Look, I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. I know how work can be. But that’s not the password!” She sang the last few words at him.

“What?”

A white furred paw stuck out into the hallway, a pair of fingers extended. “Two more tries.” 

“Fine. V8fox.”

“Bzzt, wrong aga--wait, how do you know my laptop password?”

“Let me in and I’ll tell you.” 

“Nice try. One more chance.”

Jack scratched his chin. “Let’s see. I guess that really only leaves one option.” He reached into his pocket and produced a small black box wrapped with a bright red bow. “Merry Christmas.”

The door slammed shut in his face. After a second, her could hear the sound of paws scrabbling at something on the other side. It finally swung open, revealing a grinning and pajama-clad arctic fox.

“Get in here, you dope.” She grabbed him by the collar of his coat and pulled him across the threshold.

“Was I right?”

Skye bent down and kissed him on the cheek. “You were close enough.”

For some reason, Jack’s face wasn’t really that cold anymore.

Her apartment was small, but wonderfully warm compared to the walk from the train station. A couple of chairs had been shoved into a corner to make room for a wide blue tarp, on which rested a baffling assortment of grease-covered tools and parts. An aggressively decorated but unilluminated Christmas tree took up most of the other corner. 

Jack tossed his sodden coat over an arm of the couch and set to work massaging the warmth back into his ears. Without a word, Skye picked up the coat and draped it over a wooden kitchen chair. A half-assembled engine about the size of a microwave was parked on the dinner table, and an old laptop playing an old Christmas tune sat precariously close to the edge of the counter. 

“So, how’d it go? Besides getting in trouble.”

“Hm?” Jack smoothed down his damp fur and released his ear. “Oh, it worked like a charm. Security’s all patched up, the backups are updated, and now Stoutwell’s computer shouldn’t crash every time he tries to pull more than four records. The ZPD’s servers should be fine, at least until after New Years.”

“Good!” Skye leaned over to her laptop and skipped to another song. “So, was he mad?”

“Carlisle? I mean, I got the usual stuff. ‘Savage, you’re not supposed to be in today. Savage, this can wait and the taxpayers can’t afford to keep paying you contractors overtime like this. Savage, your keycard access is supposed to shut off at 5:30. You know how he is.”

“He’s right, you know, even if he is a grump. You shouldn’t be at work on Christmas Eve. Now, help me move this thing or it’ll scratch the table.”

Skye took one end of the engine and nodded for Jack to do the same. Together, they managed to maneuver around the kitchen furniture and make it to the tarp.

“So, what’s that thing for, anyway?” Jack wiped grease from his paws with an oil-stained towel, then tossed it to Skye.

“Just something for a client. A squirrel, if you can believe it. Guess she’s a real adrenaline junky. Now!” Skye clapped her paws together. “Now before we eat, check this out.” She reached into her pocket and tossed a tiny something at Jack.

He fumbled it once, then snagged it before it hit the ground. 

“A remote?”

The block letter label pasted at the top simply read “Christmas”, and the lone plastic knob was in the off position.

“Well, go ahead!” Skye leaned over the back of the couch and rested her head in one hand. The corners of her mouth twitched, and Jack couldn’t miss the look she was giving him. The look she gave him when she was showing off.

“Nothing’s going to...you know. Explode this time?” 

A throw pillow caught him in the side of the head. 

“Come on, do it!”

Jack turned the knob, and the apartment sprang to life. First came the music. For a moment, he mistook the drum roll for the purring of a small motor. He didn’t spot the miniature speakers until the lights blinked on. He’d also failed to notice the strands of lights strung along the walls and counter of the dimly lit apartment, but now they were impossible to miss.

“How long did this take?” he said, craning his neck around the corner to confirm that yes, they did extend down the hallway to the bathroom.

“Shh!” Skye nudge him and nodded toward the corner.

An tinny, electronic fanfare sounded, and multicolored lights swirled to life around a Christmas tree almost over-burdened with ornaments. The glittering dots spun round the base and up the tree until finally reaching the golden star on top.

“Tada!” Skye scurried between Jack and the tree and gestured toward it like an amateur magician, just out of time with the final musical flare.

“This has to be a fire hazard, right?”

“Wha-”

“And does the music play every time you turn it on?”

“Jack.” She was giving him that look.

He took her paws in his own and gave them a squeeze. “Ah, I’m just teasing you. It’s amazing. _You’re_ amazing.”

He stretched up onto his tiptoes and kissed her before she could say anything else. As always, Skye wrapped her arms around him and caught his weight, keeping him from tipping over until they parted. She took a breath and seemed about to say something, then smiled and gave his shoulder a shove.

“C’mon, let’s go microwave dinner.”

Jack took one last look around the living room before following her into the kitchen. 

“You always overdo it, don’t you?” he called after her.

“I have to overdo it, because you don’t do it at all.” She stuck her tongue out at him and popped a plate into the microwave.

Jack hopped up onto a stool at the other side of the kitchen counter. “So.”

Skye cocked an ear at him. “So what?”

“So, I didn’t finish telling you what Carlisle said. He said, ah…” Jack strummed a finger through his whiskers. “He said I should think about finding other work.”

Skye spun toward him, almost dropping the foil-wrapped plate in her hands. “Wait, that crazy old wolf really threatened to get you fired? You?! On Christmas Eve?”

“No, that’s not exactly--”

“You’re the best sysadmin the ZPD’s ever had! Just because he’s some big shot computer whiz with a badge, he thinks he can waltz on in and push a contractor around, huh? Well--”

“Skye, no. He--”

She pounded a fist onto the faux-granite countertop. “You know what! You oughta go in there first thing in the morning New Year’s Day and say ‘I quit, you jerks!’. Go make a bucket of money at Zoogle and wait for them to beg you to come back, and then you’ll--OOF!”

A throw pillow hit her square in the stomach.

Jack settled back into his seat. “Skye. He gave me this.” He pulled an envelope out of his pocket and slid it across the counter. She took a minute to scrutinize the letter before saying anything, brow furrowed as she read.

“A letter of recommendation?”

“You remember that job posting I was telling you about? Systems analyst for the ZIA? Well, turns out being a big shot computer whiz with a badge means old Carlisle knows a mammal or two. We’ve talked before about what I went to school for and, you know, what I’d like to be doing.” Jack scooted a coaster back and forth across the counter with a paw. “Hopes and dreams. That kind of stuff. Especially now that there’s a bunny cop and all, I’m thinking, what the heck. Maybe I can do this. So I’m gonna apply.”

“Jack…”

“It’ll be a bit of a pay cut at first, and it may not be the most exciting work to start off, but I think it’s a step in the right direction.”

“Jack.”

“I know it’s a one in a million shot, even with the letter, but I felt like it was something I needed to do. Does that make sense?”

“Jack!” He hadn’t noticed Skye come around the counter. She scooped him up into a hug and squeezed him tight before he could protest. “I love you, you dope. You should absolutely do this. But now, I have to give you your Christmas present.”

She plopped him back down and rushed off to the bedroom.

“Right now?” he said in between post-suffocation coughs. 

“It’s too perfect not to.” Skye had already returned with a dark bag suspended from a clothes hanger. “Sorry about the presentation. I couldn’t figure out how to wrap it without making a mess of the whole thing.”

“Uh, it’s fine. Here.” Jack slipped off the stool took the hanger from her hands. Holding it at arm’s length, he eased the zipper down. A sharp, black suit and tie hung before him, neatly pressed and, as far as he could tell, exactly his size. “Wow.”

“Like it?”

Jack tossed the bag aside and looked it over, front and back. “Skye, it’s perfect. How did you know I needed a new suit?”

“I remember you said you wished we could go out more, do fancier stuff sometimes. I guess I got lucky, since you’re going to be a superspy now.”

Jack couldn’t help but laugh. “Oh, that’s me for sure. Jack Savage, international agent. There’s no e-mail system I can’t debug, no network I can’t accidentally crash.”

Skye wrapped her arms around him from behind and rested her chin on his head. “Well, every superspy has to start somewhere.”

He looked up at her and smirked. “Say, I guess I owe you a present now.” He hooked the hanger on the edge of the counter, taking care to keep the suit from brushing against anything, and retrieved the small black box.

She tugged one end of the bow until it unraveled completely, then lifted the lid. Her face lit up just as he had hoped. Skye lifted the necklace up to the light, then tried it on, heedless of the fact that its brilliant blue gemstones didn't exactly match her cartoon chicken-patterned pajamas. 

“Why Mr. Savage, you’ve never bought me jewelry before.”

“I stole it from the vault of a fearsome Bearuskian gangster on one of my many international capers.”

Skye gasped and put a paw to her forehead. “Oh, how daring!” She giggled at herself and slipped the necklace back off. “But really, I thought you were gonna to get me some gearhead thing again. Not that I would have minded.”

“And I thought you were gonna get me some tech thing again. Not that I would have minded, either.”

“Hah, fair. But really, how’d you know I’d been looking at jewelry? Keylogger on my laptop? Cracked the password to my Lambazon account?”

“I just thought they’d look stunning with your eyes.”

Jack once again took her paw and drew her near. Her goofy grin dropped away, and a different kind of smile crept onto her face in spite of herself.

“Okay, mister spy. That was pretty smooth.”

He stretched up and kissed her again, and she caught him ever so subtly, just as she did before.

Just as she always did.


End file.
